Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itsey Sagay has said that the monies and assets being recovered from corrupt Nigerians are being ploughed into national budget every year.
Professor Sagay, who spoke to news men today, October 10 at the presidential Villa, Abuja wondered at the unprecedented amount of money and assets illegally acquired by mainly public servants that have been recovered.
“And the more remarkable aspect of it is that this recovered loots is being ploughed into the national budget every year. It is ploughed back into the national budget and used for the Social Investment Programme.
“So when you hear about feeding of over 12 million school children as when I checked last having nutritious meal every day, you hear of poor families being supported to survive and stand on their feet or over 500,000 young people who are being trained in all sorts of skills and paid N30,000 a month by the government and the interest free loans given to small scale businesses all over the country: it’s all part of this money.
Not a kobo of it is left. Everything is ploughed back and I think the country should know that, it’s very unprecedented.
“This had never happened before in the history of this country, everything is ploughed back.
Then we have succeeded in improving the quality of prosecution by giving the anti prosecution agencies a lot of capacity building, train them in the manner cases should be prosecuted and how charges should be drawn.
“Judges up to the Supreme Court, have also benefitted from this programme.”
The PACA chairman said that in the area of corruption, Nigeria which was losing almost N400 billion every year on fake fuel subsidy payments, does not have such case now.
“So generally the tone of the country has improved. The country has gained tremendously, corruption has gone down.
“There is still corruption but it has gone down and anybody who indulges in it, particularly an officer of a state who engages in it knows the risk he is taking. “We have the TSA. We have the bank verification number, all those things have made an incredible change in our level of anti corruption.
“Now, you cannot hide money in the banks anymore and agencies cannot hide money in various banks accounts which they spend without the knowledge of the government. Everything is in one place, everything is transparent, thanks to this government.”
